At 11 a.m. Saturday there is going to be a wonderful presentation and unveiling of a memorial site to honor Edgewood Grade School.

The site is just behind James Whitcomb Riley School (on Shelby Street, just north of Epler Avenue), which started out as an addition to the Edgewood building. The Riley building was opened in 1949 to ease the overcrowding of the main Edgewood facility. At that time elementary schools in Perry Township held all eight elementary classes.

The Epler family’s old home was located just west of the Edgewood School’s property, and I’m sure this property was once a part of the Epler’s farm. For years that house was the location of the township trustee’s office.

There were a couple of other Epler connections to Edgewood School. Mercedes Epler taught first grade at Edgewood and then at the Riley building from 1947-59. Her husband, Norwood Epler, drove a bus route, and I rode with him for a few years. His brother, Al Epler, also drove a township school bus and operated the Thrifty Corner gas station. His son, Morris Epler, was a great basketball player for Southport High.

The large number of outside basketball courts on the Edgewood School property gave young players the opportunity to play against really good opponents. 

Paul L. Bailey was the principal of Edgewood School for many years. He was a good basketball player and shared his love of the game with a friend and local businessman named Frank Kautsky, who owned a local grocery store. Mr. Bailey invited Frank to attend some of the games being played at Edgewood by members of an adult league. That resulted in Mr. Kautsky forming the first professional basketball team in Indiana. Paul Bailey played on that squad and was the business manager. 

The large cement memorial was once located over one of the front entrances to the school building. It has been in the care of former Edgewood student and Perry Township School Board member Richard Poppa. He contacted Ted Lobdell and offered to donate it. Ted and Barry Hix have organized several reunions and this special program.

After the ceremony there will be a get-together at The Corner Bar, 5506 S. Meridian St., corner of Epler and Old Meridian St.

A few days ago I drove over with Stuart, my therapy dog, and his stuffed dog, Pete to see how nicely the memorial was coming together. I suspect that Pete and a couple of other of my Edgewood memories will be with me on Saturday.

If you plan to attend and have memories that you can display, please bring them. 
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The location is the backside (south side) of the James Whitcomb Riley School (on Shelby Street, just north of Epler Avenue). 

Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools.

Edgewood Grade School, which was demolished in 1979, is going to be memorialized at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 28. The program has been coming together for several years, and lots of former staff members and students are excitedly counting down the days.

Former students Ted Lobdell and Barry Hix have been the leaders of the pack. They have organized several all-school reunions. 

When I entered the first grade at Edgewood, the building housed all eight grades. The junior high had not yet started. Edgewood was a crowded building that year. As second-graders, my class began as the older class opening the new James Whitcomb Riley Building on the same property. Riley became the school for first- and second-graders.

We returned to the main building for Grades 3-6. The start of our seventh grade marked the opening of Perry Township Junior High. My class was involved when our junior high was converted to Southport High; that’s when the new fieldhouse was opened.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit down with Dick Poppa and share some Edgewood stories. He and his sister, brothers and mom attended Edgewood. Dick was a member of the school board when the decision was made to close and raze the school. He saved the large piece of concrete that supported the door frame at the school. The name of the school is carved into the cement.

He had this placed on his home property in several states throughout the years. It will now have a special resting place back on Perry Township School property. Dick told me that he has a scheduling conflict and might not get back to Indianapolis in time to attend the dedication. He said several of his family members would speak at the dedication.

I was extra lucky when it came to Edgewood ... I later drove a bus for the school. I have so much fun attending our reunions because I get to interact with my former classmates, folks who were maybe a year or two ahead or behind me and students who I drove to school.

Should you know any former Edgewood students or staff, please contact them and make sure that they are aware of the dedication. 
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I will share more information about the program in next week’s column.

Stuart, my therapy dog, and I have been busy and having a lot of fun. Stuart, being 13 in human years – 91 in dog years – is the senior member of our family. 

Last month Stuart had his annual physical, and he gave me “the bad eye” when we pull into the parking lot at The Southside Animal Hospital. Dr. Michael Jones said Stuart didn’t have anything to worry about. According to Stuart, the best part of any doctor visit is getting back into the car and driving away.

Dr. Jones called several days later and informed me that Stuart had a kidney infection. Stuart was prescribed some capsules, of which he was to take three of them three times a day for 10 days. 

I have endured a 10-day challenge. I had to stay on top of my plan to hide Stuart’s medicine in his dog food. After just a few times I noticed that he was figuring out which clump of food the pill was in. My thought was that he could smell the scent of my fingers on the clump of food I had squeezed the pill into. I started touching each clump in the bowl, and that worked for a few days ... before I had to come up with a couple of more ideas. 

Stuart was pleased to discover that spring break was over and we were once again visiting Central Elementary and South Grove Intermediate in Beech Grove. He is a canine that loves routine and has trouble dealing with the two-week breaks in the fall, winter and spring.

We missed several weeks at South Grove due to ISTEP testing, which was held a few weeks before spring break. It was great to visit both schools and listen to students read to us again.

During our morning visit to Central Elementary, one of the students who came to read to Stuart brought a great book. It was about Hurricane Katrina, one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. We looked at some of the pictures, which showed Katrina’s destructive path through cities like New Orleans.

As we were enjoying the book, I suddenly heard a siren going off inside the building. Principal Craig Buckler came over the public address system and explained that a tornado drill was underway. 

A school staff member came to our room and escorted us to the hallway, where hunkered down until the drill was over. 

We were soon back in our room and once again listening to great stories. 

Later, I was thinking about our morning visit to Central Elementary and started wondering about the odds of a student picking a book about hurricanes, reading it to us and having something like a tornado drill happening all at the same time.

I was impressed with the calmness of all the students. Stuart and I stayed calm also.
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Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools.

Several years ago I had one of those birthdays where the age number ends in zero. I was pleased that it was looking like a calm day. Our daughter, Michelle, and my wife, Lyn, had a day of shopping planned. I had been invited to spend the afternoon at Michelle’s house to watch a race on television.

It was a scam. I was called home during the race because of a problem. When I arrived home I was shocked to find lots of cars parked all around our house. A surprise party. The main gift I received was a rooster from my daughter. 

Jack the rooster became part of our family. He and I became great friends. He seemed disappointed when he discovered that some humans were not so friendly. Eventually, a petition was instituted to have him relocated.

A couple of weeks ago I started working on a special Easter/April Fool’s Day plan. I heard Lyn talking to Michelle on the telephone. I asked Lyn to find out the birth date of Michelle’s husband, Ben. We were told it was in September. I didn’t really care what the answer was, I just wanted to get some thoughts going.
I then started putting my plan into motion. After Jack was relocated, I was presented a beautiful stuffed rooster, which I call Jack II.

I drafted my stuffed rooster to assist in this spoof. I recorded some rooster sounds on a cassette, and I found a tall cardboard box and put some wood shaving in the bottom of it. I lifted Jack II into the box and dropped in the cassette player. Then I placed a large towel over the box. After practicing a few times I showed it to Lyn.

We had been invited to an Easter brunch with Michelle and Ben and other family members. 

Our waitress approached me with a small coffee cup and informed me that it had been specially ordered for me. I must have been displaying a confused look because she told me that it was coconut milk. It had been ordered by our grandson, Trey, and his girlfriend, Diana. They know that I hate coconut. I will start planning in the near future to get even with them.

There were about 16 of us, and we had a good time. Pansorn, who attends the University of Indianapolis and sings in the church choir with Lyn, accompanied us. They helped me get through all those crazy roundabouts near Noblesville.  After brunch we all went to Michelle and Ben’s new home. They just downsized and many of us were seeing their home for the first time. 

When we parked on the street we noticed more than half of the folks were still standing in the front yard. This seemed to be a great time to carry in the box with the rooster. We turned on the tape player and everyone could hear the rooster sounds.

I heard responses like, “What is that?” Someone else said, “He didn’t.” We heard, “Oh no!” Once inside we were directed to the kitchen, where family members came in one at a time to examine what was in the box. Some were startled when I pulled back the towel to reveal the rooster. 
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Later, they were discussing location to place the rooster in their new accommodations. I told them that it was only an April Fool’s prank and Jack the rooster was coming home with us.